


Unlikely Friends

by lightningrani



Category: Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-03
Updated: 2015-07-03
Packaged: 2018-04-07 09:37:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4258461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightningrani/pseuds/lightningrani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fred needed a distraction, so he paid a visit to a place filled with nice memories. He didn't expect to spend most of his time talking to a parrot.</p><p>(The major spoilers are for SYWTBAW and High Wizardry, but there are references to things which happened up to Wizards at War)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unlikely Friends

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Crystal_Silvera](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crystal_Silvera/gifts).



> Treat fill! Let's just say I saw this prompt and thought it would be fun to write. I interpreted the prompt as the two having a discussion in Timeheart (though they do meet up in canon, briefly); I'm not sure if that's what you were going for, but I hope you like it.
> 
> Lots of random guessing on what Timeheart is like; we've had some description of it, but only from the perspective of outsiders, so I just... ran with stuff.

Fred floated around nonchalantly in Timeheart. He had been here for some time—the passage of time here was never consistent—and he wasn’t sure what else he could do. It wasn’t like he was bored; no one could be bored in Timeheart. It was a place of peace and happiness and of freedom. Something which Fred enjoyed.

But there was only so much one could stand of talking to other celestial bodies, and Fred wanted to experience something new. Something like what he experienced before coming here. The thrill of life at its finest.

… Well, that was unlikely. But at least meeting someone new would be nice.

There were many places Fred could travel to in Timeheart, for Timeheart was everything in its perfect state. But he was feeling nostalgic, and turned his attention to Earth.

He skirted around New York—even if the place he visited was a perversion of the true city, he would never be comfortable there again—and ended up floating around a small house. He could hear someone bustling inside, talking to a dog, who would bark at random intervals. Fred flashed sadly. Maybe he ended up in the wrong place. There shouldn’t be people here, not yet.

So instead, he decided to meander around the area. No one paid attention to a floating ball of light—this was Timeheart after all—but no one came to talk to him at all. Well, a change of scenario was always nice. And this place always brought back cherished memories.

“Cat got your tongue?”

Fred flashed brightly, surprised. A brightly colored bird was perched on a nearby mailbox, looking at him quizzically.

 _I don’t understand. I don’t have a tongue,_ Fred replied, dimming in confusion.

The bird cackled. Fred flickered. He didn’t like that noise at all. “I haven’t seen you around here before.”

_Oh, just taking a trip down memory lane._

“The only white hole which has visited this little sleepy town sacrificed himself to save some baby wizards.”

 _Well, when you put it like that…_ Fred brightened in understanding. _You must be that bird! At that house! Peach, was it?_

Peach cackled. “You have a good memory, Fred, for someone who creates cars when he hiccups.”

_That was ONE TIME._

The bird just cackled in response.  “Timeheart treating you well?”

Fred flickered in puzzlement. _It’s Timeheart._

“But here you are, instead of hanging with the stars.”

_The stars will be there when I get back._

Peach flapped her wings casually. “Those wizards, the ones you saved, they grew up well. I thought you should know.”

Fred brightened in happiness. _Oh, that’s good to hear!_ They said they would come and visit, but, well. It’s Timeheart. There’s only so much time when you’re alive, and Timeheart is hard to visit even when you’re free. Fred knew they hadn’t forgotten him, but the last time he saw them was right after he arrived here. _What have they done?_

Peach cackled. “Saved the world time over time again.  The first major thing they did after their Ordeal was saving the ocean.” She paused. “Nita almost sacrificed herself like she did. To fulfill a promise she made.”

Fred may have emitted some very dangerous electromagnetic rays in response to that. _Almost? What happened?_

“Nita has a talent of making friends in the strangest of places,” Peach responded. “Like you, for example. Someone sacrificed himself in her place.”

 _Did… did Nita arrange for it to happen?_ Fred asked quietly. Humans had an interesting idea about the importance of life, but it was Nita. She knew what promises meant, especially as a wizard.

Peach made a sharp, piercing noise. “She’s a wizard. It’s going to take more than losing her own life to turn her back on the tenants of wizardry. Like her mother’s life being on the line. Oh, don’t do that again,” Peach admonished as Fred began to angrily emit electromagnetic waves, “everything turned out okay in the end. They’re all still wizards.”

_But what about her mother?_

Peach flapped her wings once. ”Maybe you should ask her yourself.  I was already here when it happened.”

 _You’re very knowledgeable about events, though,_ Fred commented, flickering with curiosity.

Peach was silent for a while. “When you decided to go up into the sky, there was no greater reason for your decision.” Fred dimmed. Peach sounded a bit different now. “You were a single individual, doing the right thing. When I sacrificed myself, it was because of a higher reason, in a sense. Reconfiguration,” Peach said slowly, letting the words fall off her tongue.  “I knew the path I was going to go down, when that One came to me as a fledgling. I knew I would die in a blaze of glory, as fitting for living with the avatar of that One.”

 _How was it , living with that One?_ Fred asked. It was uncommon for other celestial bodies to host one of the Powers That Be. They preferred to be in someone who could be a bit more active.

Peach cackled. “I’m a bird. I don’t just live with that One, I became that One for a while. All avatars experience something like that. It was different being in Timeheart; the One had no time to be here. So I was alone.” Peach cackled again, but it wasn’t a happy cackle. “There aren’t many who I can talk to about this. Other than that dog.”

 _Dog?_ Fred asked. But Peach ignored him. “So I know some things, things which that One also knew, when It was still on Earth. Nita met another one like me in her travels, so I know some things. But not as much as I could. And it’s still not the same as being there.”

Fred flashed in agreement. _Timeheart is Timeheart, but it’s not the same as life. It can’t be the same as life. Because it’s Timeheart._ They stayed there in silence for a few seconds.

Peach fluffed up her feathers. “Good talk, good talk.  Come down here whenever you want to talk. It’s nice to talk to someone who knows those little wizards.”

 _It was nice hearing about them again. Thank you, Peach,_ Fred responded, glowing in thanks. It wasn’t the same as actually seeing those two again, or being out in that world for one more time, but it was something at least. And now he knew where to go when he wanted to talk.


End file.
